Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 8, scan section 83

riage.3 CHAPTER VIII. A. During three days before the interment, experts repair to the cemetery and examine the dead whether they are really dead; [and although this is the custom of other nations], there is no fear of the prohibition of the deeds of the Amorites.1 It happened that one of the dead was examined (and found alive), and he lived twenty-five years after that ; and to another one, that he begat five children before he died. B. A canopy may be made for dead bridegrooms and brides, and either eatable or uneatable things may be hung on it. So is the decree of R. Meir. R. Jehudah, however, said: Only unripe things — viz., unripe nuts, unripe jarAAo£, tongus of pur- ple, and flasks of Arabian oil ; but not when they are ripe, nor ripe pomegranates, nor flasks of sweet oil, as whatever hangs on the canopy, no benefit may be derived from it.1 Strings of fish, pieces of meat, may be thrown before the dead bridegroom or bride in the summer,2 but not in rain time; and even during 2 Deut. xxii. 14. 3 Concerning a widow and the other subjects mentioned above, they are explained in their respective tracts ; therefore we have omitted them here. CHAPTER VIII. A. ' Lev. xviii. 3. B. ' Therefore only unripe things were allowed, lest one should use them if they were ripe. a It must have been a custom at that time to throw some things which were prepared for the wedding feast. It is certainly difficult to explain, without a particular knowl- edge of this obsolete custom. Naumburg, however, maintains that it was done for a live bridegroom and bride; but we do not agree with him, for the reason that this is not mentioned in Berachoth, where it is enumerated what is to be done to honor the bride and bridegroom. EBEL RABBATHI, OR SEMA'HOTH. 31 the summer, they must not do so with cooked fish or other eat- ables which will be spoiled after they are thrown on the ground. Nuts and other fruit in shells, as they are not spoiled, may be thrown at all times. There is a rule that anything which may be spoiled must not be thrown. C. Likewise wine and oil may be put in a water pipe in honor of live bridegrooms and brides. As it happened to Jehu- dah and Hillel the sons of R. Gamaliel, when they were the guests of Ben Zakkai in Babylon,1 the townspeople flooded the water pipes with wine and oil to honor them. Also the bodies of kings, and their clothes may be burned, their cattle ham- stringed, without fear that it is after the usages of the Amorites. The ceremony of burning clothes and other things is performed for the corpses of kings only, but not for princes. When Rab- ban Gamaliel died, Aquilas the proselyte, however, burned in his honor clothes of the value of eight thousand Zuz, and when ne was asked why he did so, he answered: It is written [Jerem. xxxiv. 5]: "In peace shalt thou die; and as burnings were made for thy father," etc. Was not Rabban Gamaliel more worthy than a hundred kings, for whom we have no use ?2 D. The hair of a dead bride may be loosened ; and the face of a bridegroom may be uncovered, and the marriage contract and the pen may be put by his side, without fear that so is the custom of the Amorites. There may also be put in the coffin the key and the pinkas (jtivai;) of the dead, to call the attention of others to mourn, as it happened with Samuel the Little, that his key and pinkas were put in his coffin, because he did not leave a son. And Rabban Gamaliel the Elder and R. Elazar b. Azariah lamented him, saying: " For this dead one it is meet to weep, it is proper to lament. When kings die they leave their thrones to their children, when rich men die they leave their wealth to their children, but Samuel the Little took with him the most precious thing in the world, and is gone ! " E. Before he died, he said: " Simeon and Ishmael are pre- pared for the sword, and all the remaining people for being robbed, and great trouble will follow." And he spoke this in C. ' These were Jehudah the second and Hillel his brother the grandsons of Rabbi; and b. Zakkai must have been a prominent person in Babylon. 3 In Abodah Zarah, ua, is stated that burning of clothes was also done for princes, and Aquilas' deed was used as a support without any explanation. 32 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. Aramaic. When this occurred, and R. Simeon b. Gamaliel and R. Ishmael were condemned to death, R. Ishmael was weeping; but R. Simeon said : I praise God that it is only two steps till I shall be received in the bosom of the righteous in the world to come, and you are weeping? And the former rejoined: Do I weep because we are going to be slain ? I am weeping because we will be slain as if we were murderers and violators of the Sab- bath. After they were executed, and R. Aqiba and R. Jehudah b. Ethyra were informed, they put sackcloth on their loins, rent their garments, and said: Brother Israelites! If a good thing was to come for the whole world, these two sages would cer- tainly have been the first to receive it; and now, as they were the first to be executed, it must be only for their benefit : they shall not see the great calamities which will follow after that. Woe ! ' The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart" [Isaiah, lvii. i]. "He shall come (to his father) in peace, they shall repose in their resting-place " [ibid., ibid. 2]. F. When R. Aqiba was executed, and R. Jehudah b. Baba and R. Hanina b. Teradion heard of it, they also arose, put sack- cloth on their loins, rent their garments, and cried: Brothers, listen to us ! R. Aqiba was not slain because of robbery nor because he had not observed the Law with all his might, he was slain only for an example, as it is written [Ezek. xxiv. 24] : " Thus shall Ezekiel be unto you for a token . . . then shall ye know that I am the Lord eternal." We are sure that within a few days there will not be a place in the whole of Palestine where corpses of the people will not be lying about. It was said that scarcely had a few days passed, when a canine appetite dissipated the whole world, which lasted from that time for a twelvemonth. G. When R. Hanina b. Teradion was seized by the govern- ment they sentenced him to the stake, his wife to the sword, and his daughter to a house of prostitution. He inquired: To what have they sentenced the poor thing (his wife) ? And he was answered : To the sword ! Whereupon he exclaimed the following passage: " Righteous is the Lord in all his ways" [Ps. cxlv. 17]. When she asked to what the rabbi was sen- tenced, she was answered : To the stake. Whereupon she ex- claimed the passage: " Great in counsel, and mighty in execu- tion," etc. [Jer. xxxii. 19]. When he was to be burned they wrapped him in the Holy Scrolls, and his daughter cried and